Transmission

FEATURED ARTICLES ABOUT TRANSMISSION - PAGE 3

By Brad Bergholdt McClatchy-Tribune News Service Q. Can you please settle a dispute about warming up the engine in your car? My husband says you shouldn't begin driving until the engine warms up for at least a minute or two. I've heard it's OK to begin driving right away. As you could guess, this conflict surfaces regularly if we go somewhere together and either of us is behind the wheel. Sometimes I prefer to drive alone. A. Oh boy. This subject is right up there with religion and politics when it comes to finding agreement.

HOUSTON (Reuters) - New York's electric grid operator said more than 90 transmission lines remained out of service on Tuesday afternoon, a day after Hurricane Sandy slammed into the East Coast with 80 mph winds and record storm surge. Despite damage to the power grid and the loss of about 13 percent of in-state generation from high wind and flooding, the New York Independent System Operator (ISO) said the bulk electric system was in compliance with industry transmission and operating reserve requirements on Tuesday.

(The author is a Reuters market analyst. The views expressed are his own) By Gerard Wynn LONDON, Dec 12 (Reuters) - As European countries deploy more wind power and become more connected through cross-border cables, electricity is taking ever more circuitous routes between sources of supply and areas of major demand, threatening grid stability. Solutions to the problem may conflict with the EU's plans for a regional electricity market and add to the unplanned consequences and costs of an ambitious roll-out of renewable energy.

PARIS (Reuters) - A second diagnosis of the new SARS-like coronavirus has been confirmed in France, the Health Ministry said on Sunday, in what appeared to be a case of human-to-human transmission. The new infection was found in a 50-year-old man who had shared a hospital room with France's only other known sufferer, the ministry said in a statement. Health experts are concerned about clusters of the new coronavirus strain, nCoV, which was first spotted in the Gulf and has spread to France, Britain and Germany.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China is investigating the possibility of human-to-human transmission of a new strain of bird flu that has killed 17 people and is examining "family clusters" of people infected with the virus, a top health official was quoted as saying. Authorities have slaughtered thousands of birds and closed some live poultry markets to slow the rate of human infection. But many aspects of this new variety of bird flu remain a mystery, particularly whether the H7N9 strain is being transmitted between people.

Q: I love my Hyundai Genesis but the A/C has never cooled right. The dealer has always said "It's just the way it was designed. " The dealer said he has checked everything. Nothing is wrong. But this summer it wouldn't cool the car when it was above 80 degrees outside. Any ideas? - G.Z., Powell, Ohio A: Apparently the dealer has not checked everything, so you may want to take the car somewhere else. We don't have enough data to make a guess at the problem, but we can tell you that there are myriad relays, pressure controls and sensors, any of which could be the culprit.

TOKYO (Reuters) - The government last month submitted legislation to parliament to overhaul Japan's electricity sector, which is dominated by regional monopolies that control all aspects of power generation and transmission, to try to cut costs and give consumers a choice of suppliers. The reforms will be carried out in three phases from 2015 to around 2020. Legislation will be needed at each stage but the bill before parliament lays out the plans or so-called roadmap. Below are the main points of the legislation, which was drawn up after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011 exposed failings in the industry and led to a rise in electricity prices for many consumers.

Commonwealth Edison said Monday that it will charge $6 more per month on average to deliver electricity to utility customers beginning in 2014 as a result of higher transmission costs and expenses it has incurred to modernize the electrical grid. In a filing with the Illinois Commerce Commission Monday -- its third under a new formula-based rate making system devised in 2011 -- the utility requested $311 million in additional revenue from customers in 2014 for its role in delivering electricity, maintaining electrical lines and improving the electrical grid.

Q: I have a 2003 Lexus ES300. I have noticed a mild chemical odor on and off, usually when the air conditioner or heat is on. Do you know what may be the cause? - J.W., Baltimore, Md. A: Since you didn't describe the odors in more detail (e.g. sweet, locker room, eye-stinging, rotten egg, floral), we can only speculate. Sweet odors often accompany a coolant leak. Locker room odors are usually from microbes growing in the A/C system. Eye stinging fumes may be from a gasoline or exhaust leak.